Glossary of Terms

Glossary of terms used in this report

Acute Services

Health care and treatment provided mainly in hospital.

Age Standardised Rates

Age-standardisation adjusts rates to take into account how many old or young people are in the different populations. When rates are age-standardised, the differences in the rates over time or between geographical areas do not simply reflect variations in the age structure of the populations.

BMA

British Medical Association is a voluntary professional association for doctors.

BMJ

British Medical Journal

Body Mass Index

BMI is the number obtained by dividing a person's weight in kilograms by the square of their height in metres.

A systematic approach to maintaining and improving the quality of patient care.

Clinical Pathways

Systematic approach to achieving particular outcomes for patient care, which identifies the resources required in amount and sequence for that type of case.

Community Health Partnership and Community Health and Care Partnerships

CHPs are organisations which have been developed across Scotland to manage a wide range of community-based health services. In some parts of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (ie Glasgow City and East Renfrewshire), these new Partnerships will also be responsible for many local social care services and will therefore be called Community Health and Care Partnerships (CHCPs).

Community Planning

A range of partners in the public and voluntary sectors working together to better plan, resource and deliver quality services that meet the needs of local people.

Co-morbidity

Occurs when an individual is affected by several diseases simultaneously.

Core Poverty

Core Poverty is defined as households that satisfy three dimensions of poverty. They are: income poor, materially deprived and subjectively poor.

Data Zones

Data zones are aggregates of unit postcodes and census output areas and nest within Local Authority boundaries. They are the building blocks of the Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics programme which is intended to make available small-area data of many different kinds across Scotland.

Determinants of health

The factors that affect health including genetic factors, lifestyle, social and community networks, cultural and environmental conditions.

E-learning

Learning activities based on any electronic format.

Employment Deprived

Employment is one of seven domains used in the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) to describe area-based measures of deprivation in Scotland. This employment domain defined by the Scottish Government, measures ‘exclusion from the world of work’.

Health Induction Process

In relation to asylum seekers, health induction is the process by which an individual’s health needs are assessed at the earliest opportunity.

Health Inequalities

The gap between the health of different population groups such as the well-off compared to poorer communities or people with different ethnic backgrounds.

Incidence

The number of new cases of a disease or condition.

Institutional discrimination

Unfair prejudice against individuals as a result of the way an organisation works or delivers services.

Managed Clinical Network

Linked groups of health professionals and organisations from primary, secondary and tertiary care, working in a co-ordinated manner, unconstrained by existing professional and Health Board boundaries, to ensure equitable provision of high quality clinically effective services throughout Scotland.

MMR vaccine

The MMR vaccine is a combined vaccine for immunisation against measles, mumps and rubella. It is generally administered to children around the age of one year, with a booster dose before starting school (i.e. age four/five).

Morbidity / mortality rate

Information relating to numbers of people affected by disease (morbidity) or numbers of deaths (mortality) expressed as a rate (for example, the number of cases per 10,000 population).

Multi-disciplinary Team

A group of people who are from different professional backgrounds concerned with the treatment and care of patients, who meet regularly to discuss patient treatment and care.

Needs Assessment

A formal process undertaken to assess the health and social care needs of a given population.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

The Health Board plans and provides health and healthcare services for the people of the region.

NHS Quality Improvement Scotland

The role of NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (NHS QIS) is to lead on improving quality of care and treatment delivered by the Health Service. NHS QIS is a special health board. As such, it does not have responsibility for a particular geographical area, but is responsible for improving patient care across NHSScotland.

Obesogenic environment

A set of circumstances that encourages people to eat and drink more calories than they expend and to become obese.

NICE

National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence

Peak oil

Peak Oil is the point or timeframe at which the maximum global petroleum production rate is reached. After this timeframe, the rate of production will enter terminal decline. This does not mean oil will suddenly "run out", but the supply of cheap conventional oil will drop and prices will rise, perhaps dramatically.

Prevalence

Measures the number of cases of a disease or condition in a population at a particular point in time or over a specified time period.

Quintile

One of five segments of a distribution that has been divided into fifths. For example, the second-from-the-bottom quintile of an income distribution is those whose income exceeds the incomes of from 20% to 40% of the population.

Standardised Mortality Ratio

SMR is the ratio of observed to expected deaths in an area. This gives the number of deaths which would be expected if the area had the age, sex and cause specific death rates of Scotland as a whole. A SMR of 100 is the standard mortality ratio. A number greater than 100 implies a higher risk and a number lower than 100 implies a lower risk.

Unmet need

An estimate of how many people with particular types of needs for particular services there might be in a given area.

Walking Bus

The walking bus is described as a safe, fun and healthy way to walk to school. Each 'bus' has an adult 'driver' at the front and an adult 'conductor' bringing up the rear. The children walk to school in a group along a set route, picking up additional 'passengers' at specific 'bus-stops' along the way.

Workforce Plus

Workforce Plus sets out the agenda for the Scottish Government to achieve its targets in Closing the Opportunity Gap.

Worklessness

Defined by the Department of Work and Pensions as "people of working age who are not in formal employment, but who are looking for a job (the unemployed), together with people of working age who are neither formally employed nor looking for formal employment (the economically inactive)".